Smashed special edition: An interview with Adam Simmonds of Voyage, London

The veteran chef talks about his long career, creativity, addiction and restaurant critics

Adam Simmonds has been around the block. In a career spanning five decades, he has worked for some of the biggest names in the business, including the Roux Brothers and Raymond Blanc, and won Michelin stars at Ynyshir Hall and Danesfield House. He is now head chef of the Scandi-influenced Voyage at the Megaro Hotel in Kings Cross, where he also oversees the casual Spagnoletti restaurant.

Voyage represents something of a comeback for Simmonds. After leaving Danesfield House in 2014, he began the search for a site for his own restaurant, finding it in 2017 at the former Barrafina site in Frith Street. However, The Test Kitchen, as it was called, was only ever intended as a year-long pop-up to showcase the concept to potential investors (the site is now Humble Chicken). The Test Kitchen never found a permanent home and Simmonds spent the next few years piballing from kitchen to kitchen before settling at the Megaro. Voyage had been open for just six days to the paying public when Times restaurant critic Giles Coren came for lunch. His review, published in late February of this year, was headlined ‘Joyless as Hell’ and awarded the restaurant just 2 out of 10 (you can read what I said about it in Smashed #50). Coren had penned one of the most vicious teardowns of his career. It was the very last thing Simmonds wanted to read.

‘When the article came out, it crushed me because I wasn't expecting that at all. Okay, the odd thing here and there, but he annihilated it. It hurt me quite bad, it was tough,’ says Simmonds, who, as an ambassador for The Burnt Chef Project, has spoken openly about his struggles with addiction and mental health. ‘If I was in a different head space, that would've sent me over the edge. But people have come and eaten here because of that article, and they’ve turned around and said, “What is he on about? He’s just trying to sell papers”. I get that he has to do that, but not to the extent that he did. As a leader, you have to rally the troops. Even though it really hurts, you have to say, okay, we can either lie down and roll over or we come out swinging. And we came out swinging.’

A far more positive review from Grace Dent in the Guardian soon followed (‘It takes thousands of hours in hot kitchens to cook like Simmonds does’), along with a more balanced take from independent critic Andy Hayler and other positive write-ups. Despite the kicking from Coren, Simmonds remains genuinely interested in all forms of feedback on his food. ‘It's important that we listen to people. I'm a better chef for listening to the customers than I was before. That's the only way we grow as a restaurant. I'd like to think that the food is the most grown-up menu that I've done due to the simplistic approach.’

Simmonds has been involved in countless menus over the course of his career, which began in the 80s at a busy pub in Leighton Buzzard where, as a teenager, he was a kitchen porter. Things got serious when, after two years of catering college, Simmonds found himself thrown in at the deep end at Albert Roux-era Le Gavroche. ‘That was brutal. To come out of college and be thrown into that was just nuts. I didn't last very long, but Albert wrote a letter to my parents saying how well I was doing. I've still got that letter. I left because I didn't have the resilience to deal with it, and I felt I was completely out of my depth. The Ritz, where I went next, was less difficult. It was in an intense place, but because it was a hotel, it seemed to be calmer and not so fast-paced. There were so many chefs that could take you under their wing that I felt more at home there.’

In the early 90s, Simmonds worked at the London outpost of the legendary Italian three-Michelin-starred chef Gualtiero Marchesi at The Halkin Hotel in Belgravia under Stefano Cavallini, the first Italian chef to win a Michelin star outside of Italy. ‘Marchesi and his boys came over, that was just so cool. Fundamentally, it was cooking stuff to order. We’d cook risotto to order, lobster to order and make and cook pasta to order. It was a lovely kitchen, but that was a big pressure cook. I've got a picture with Marchesi. He offered me a job out in Italy, and I didn’t take it. I regret that now.’

A stint at the Lanesborough Hotel followed, where Paul Gayler headed up the kitchen and Chris Galvin was his senior sous chef, but it was the three years Simmons spent at Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons working for Raymond Blanc that were perhaps the most influential on his career. ‘The thing with Le Manoir is that you can stand in the corner and put it on your CV, ‘yes, I've done a year’ but that doesn't mean anything. You have to embrace what Le Manoir has to offer and run with it in order to get the best experience from it. And that's what I did, even though it broke me a few times. There are no words that can describe what I got from it. I remember chef wasn't happy with the squid risotto, so he said, ‘Get everything ready, and we do it together.’ I spent a whole afternoon with him, just him and me. I've still got the recipe at home that he scribbled on.’

Simmonds speaks warmly of the man he still calls ‘chef’ to this day and the support he has received from him, both with his personal struggles and professionally, by dining in restaurants Simmonds has run. Blanc’s cooking style continues to influence Simmonds. ‘The way that he looks at food and the way he extracts flavour from it, and the way he is as a mentor and as a chef, is huge. When he came to Voyage, he spent time with the boys in the kitchen and said, “If you add this and add that, and this is not right”. They just got so much of a buzz from him. I'm so honoured that he did that.’

Blanc’s influence also loomed large over the first menu Simmonds wrote as a head chef at The Greenway Hotel in Cheltenham in the early 2000s. ‘All of the dishes were from Le Manoir because I hadn't developed my style, but over time, I changed them. I tried to be clever and do a trio of caramel and then wondered why it was a mess. You look at the food back then and look at what it is now, and think, what on earth was I doing there? But that's the time and era of that food.’

Nevertheless, Simmonds won praise from the restaurant guides with three rosettes from the AA and a Good Food Guide rating of 7/10. But it was his next job at Ynyshir Hall in Wales (now renamed by current chef and owner Gareth Ward as simply Ynyshir) that put Simmonds on the culinary map, winning his first Michelin star in 2006, as well as being the first restaurant in Wales to attain four AA rosettes and 8 out of 10 in the Good Food Guide, something that Simmonds says he is very proud of. It was however, a bittersweet experience.

‘I was allowed to have pretty much a free rein. That's where I was first able to express myself as a chef. But I look back at it now, and I didn't really have an idea of what I was doing. I was trying to follow trends, and that became very difficult. I ran myself into the ground there, I now know that.’

By 2007, Simmonds had made the move to Danesfield House, an imposing country house hotel just outside Marlow in the Buckinghamshire countryside. By 2010, he had collected the same set of awards that he had achieved at Ynyshir Hall, but they didn’t come easily. ‘I was just trying far too hard because I thought if I had a bigger team, I could do this, this, and this; quite clearly, that didn’t work. Then we had an ex-restaurant guide inspector come to do some consultancy. He tore my menu apart and said, “Why are you doing this? What's this doing and what's that doing?” It was like going through a tornado. I started to take stuff off the menu, and that's when we got the star. Less is more sometimes.’

Although he had remained constantly busy following his departure from Danesfield in 2014, Voyage at last presented Simmonds with an opportunity to settle into a long-term role and reassess his cooking style. ‘I think I was disillusioned and bored with the industry through my own struggles and not being able to hold a job down. Going to America and Dubai enabled me to carve out a lifestyle for myself at that point. I found myself again, and I was confident in coming back to the UK and being able to stand up and say, ‘Look, I'm back.’ So the whole concept arose around wanting to change who I was as a chef and challenge myself again to deliver this type of food.’

Simmonds looked north to Scandinavia and the Nordic school of cooking, centred on ageing, pickling, fermenting and preserving for inspiration. ‘It was a case of coming back and saying, okay, how can I do things differently? What can I do to reinvent myself as a chef? And this was the perfect way I felt to be able to do that and still keep within the realms of what Adam Simmons is as a chef.’

One standout from the opening Voyage menu was a dish of celeriac with shiitake, walnut and black truffle, a creation praised by both Grace Dent (‘vegetarian joy’) and Andy Hayler (‘the earthy taste of the celeriac nicely paired with the woodland hint of the mushrooms’). It’s a favourite of Simmonds’ too. ‘That was the hardest dish to get right because of the balance of the fermented celeriac, roasted celeriac and dehydrated salt-baked celeriac. It’s built on how the fermentation is within the dish. The celeriac has to be cooked properly in order for the flavour of fermentation to come through. If that's not balanced, then the dish is not worth anything. That took us seven or eight goes to get right.’

Simmonds finishes the dish with a broth made by juicing celeriac and infusing it with celeriac skin, adding truffle for more earthiness and almonds for crunch. ‘It's a well-balanced dish and something that I'm very proud of. At one point, I thought, if I can't get this right, then it's going in the bin because there's no way it's going to work. But we persevered and this is what we got.’

Simmond’s has also persevered with his recovery. He has spoken in the past about his addiction, hitting rock bottom and being one step away from living on the streets, but says today he is clean and sober and in a good space, despite encountering a new challenge. ‘I've recently been diagnosed with bipolar. Bipolar and addiction are linked in some way, shape, or form. Some days are harder than others. I need to keep working the program and keep looking after myself. You have a daily reprieve and that’s all you have. Sleep is a big thing. Eating healthily is a big thing, as is the gym. I have a supportive network around me, and I have great support from the hotel. The most important thing is that you are open about what's going on. You can't feel that by speaking to employers that you're going to lose your job. It's important to be honest from day one because then there's no surprises.’

Simmonds continues to help others in a similar situation with his work at Home Kitchen, a restaurant in Primrose Hill staffed by recruits from the homeless community. The idea grew out of his work during Covid at Soup Kitchen London, an organisation that delivers meals, mental health assistance, clothing, and companionship to the homeless, elderly and vulnerable. ‘I went to see the director Alex Brown and he said, “I know what you're going to say before you even say it”. It took four years to get it off the ground. It’s about giving people an opportunity where society has given up on them, to give them a little bit of hope that they can go on and achieve things with the right mentality and the right drive.’

Simmonds’ own mentality and drive appear to be in the right place, and he believes that Voyage has the makings of a great restaurant. ‘The foundations are there, we just need to build on them. We are striving hard, we are pushing hard. I have a clear vision on where I would like to take the food. The things we're going to add, the things you're going to take away, are only going to make the experience better.’

With a mantlepiece full of awards, it’s no surprise that Simmonds would like to add to his collection. But as with every other aspect of his life, the chef is taking a balanced view. ‘I'd be silly and lying to myself if I didn't say that I'm not after certain accolades as a chef, that's a driver. If the guides come and they think the food is worthy, then they will issue whatever they want to issue. I can't be chasing it and I'm not going to chase it. It's about being confident in where you are as a chef and as a human being. That's very much the way I look at things now. ’

Voyage Tasting Menu (28 March 2025)

Oyster

Brittany oyster with compressed Granny Smith apple, raw white asparagus, sorrel oil, tapioca pearls and wood sorrel leaves.

Wine Pairing
Casa Monte Pío, Raxeira, Albariño, Rías Baixas, 2023

Asparagus

White asparagus with one milk-poached and barbecued, another barbecued from raw, raw white asparagus stripes at the bottom and fermented pieces on the top. Finished with a rosemary sabayon and bitter cress.

Wine Pairing
Weingut Corvers Kauter, Riesling, Rheingau, Germany, 2023

Lobster

Lightly roasted Scottish lobster tail served with razor clams, palourdes and cockles, squid and sea urchin granita. Finished with kelp broth.

Wine Pairing
Ferraton Père et Fils, Saint-Joseph La Source Blanc, Côtes du Rhône, 2023

Celeriac

Celeriac three-way (salt-baked, roasted and fermented), pan-fried shiitake and shiitake purée, green walnuts and Périgord black truffle. Finished with celeriac broth.

Wine Pairing
Momento, Grenache Noir, Western Cape, South Africa, 2022

Sweetbread

Veal sweetbread with salt-baked and raw kohlrabi, black onion purée and chicken and yellow mustard seeds sauce.

Wine Pairing
Tocco, “Il Capostazione”, Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, Abruzzo, Italy, 2021

Venison

Aged venison is coated in a buckwheat, dehydrated coriander and black juniper crumb, salt-baked and amber-roasted beetroot, fresh blackberries, baby beetroot petals, parsley purée and venison sauce.

Pairing as above.

Sea Buckthorn

Sea buckthorn sorbet, semi-dehydrated and compressed carrot, fresh mandarin and mandarin purée.

Alcohol-Free Pairing
Strawberry wine made with fresh strawberries and Alain Millat Chardonnay White Grape Juice.

Pearl Barley

Koji pearl barley ice cream, hazelnut chocolate ganache, hazelnut cream, chestnut cream and pears compressed in Jasmine kombucha.

Wine Pairing
Prunotto, Moscato d’Asti, Italy, 2022

Voyage with Adam Simmonds at The Megaro Hotel
23 Euston Road, London, NW1 2SD. 020 3146 0222; voyage-adamsimmonds.com & themegaro.co.uk